Optical networking has proliferated with the increasing demands for bandwidth. As such, optical networks have evolved to utilize coherent optical modems which support hundreds of gigabits of capacity. Optical modems are deployed in a bidirectional configuration where two nodes are used to communicate client data (e.g., Ethernet, Optical Transport Network (OTN), etc.). There is a requirement to provide timing synchronization (via a clock at each node) between the transmit and receive directions in the bidirectional configuration. Line timing where one optical modem is timed off another optical modem is preferred as this ensures there is no frequency difference between the transmit and receive directions. However, conventionally, line timing is only used in a loopback configuration (where the recovered data is propagated to the transmitter). Without line timing, there is a frequency difference between the transmit and receive directions inhibiting optimal performance. The conventional approach includes the use of two clocks at each node, a transmit clock and a receive clock, and a clock recovery technique for synchronization.